User Reviews

Castle of Evil seems to be a largely forgotten film: it's only listed in one of my reference books, I can't find it on DVD, and I couldn't find it on any streaming site. YouTube it is then, in fairly terrible quality...

The basic plot for the film is a collection of hoary old horror clichés: six people are invited to the reading of the will of reclusive scientist Kovic (Thourlby) at his creepy castle on an island near Nassau. They are greeted by housekeeper Lupe Tekal d'Esperanza (Shelley Morrison), who reads the rules of the will: if any of the group should die before the will is filed the following morning, the estate will be shared between the remaining beneficiaries. Lupe also reveals that Kovic's death was not an accident, and that one of the six was responsible - the group must find out who committed the crime in order to inherit their share, not an easy ask since each has their own reason for hating the man.

As is de rigueur for the genre, the castle comes complete with endless gloomy corridors, a mad scientist's lab, and secret passageways, a storm rages throughout the night, and people start to turn up dead. The film adds a little originality to proceedings when we learn who (or should that be 'what'?) is responsible for the killings: a robot created in the image of Kovic and programmed with the scientist's evil, controlled by Lupe, who hated her boss and engineered his demise. There's also an acid vapor chamber for disposing of bodies and a laser gun in the lab, which comes in handy when battling a killer robot!

It's often the case that famous actresses either start their careers in trashy horror or end up slumming in them -- Castle of Evil sees '40s blonde bombshell Virginia Mayo reduced to z-grade schlock horror in order to earn a paycheck; she is joined by B-movie/TV stars Scott Brady, Lisa Gaye, Hugh Marlowe and David Brian. This capable cast are given very little to do for most of the film, which spends an awfully long time on dull chit-chat before getting to the murders. When the robot is finally activated and sent on his way, the subsequent deaths are tame and bloodless, making the rest of the action just as dull as the talky stuff.

Six people are invited to a cliff top castle in Nassau to hear a will. The will has been made by a dead man whom they hated but who will leave his money to those innocent if they discover the identity of the person who killed said dead man. The storm rages outside, the castle is full of strange passages and a housekeeper with a pet gecko watches them on closed circuit television. Also is the dead man dead? And who is the disfigured man in the well tailored suit? With those ingredients it is a shame the film is lacking in suspense, excitement and terror.

The main cast, Scott Brady, Virginia Mayo, David Brian, Lisa Gaye and Hugh Marlowe have all been in better things and can't do much with the silly dialogue. Shelley Morrison as Lupe Tekal d'Esperanza is probably the best thing. A black cat also appears for two seconds. The sets are adequate however and Paul Dunlap provides a good music score.

It is an underwhelming film overall.

Not copyright. U.S. release through World Entertainment Corp./United Pictures: November 1966. U.K. release through Compton-Cameo: February 1967. Banned in Australia. 7,241 feet. 81 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Six people are summoned to a remote Caribbean island for a reading of a disfigured chemist's will. The chemist's ghost informs the heirs that one of them was directly responsible for his disfiguration. That night, the chemist's doctor is murdered. The housekeeper is also fatally attacked. Before dying, she explains that her master had created an electronic monster who has been programmed to kill the heirs one by one.

COMMENT: Even rabid Virginia Mayo admirers will be hard put to glean much satisfaction from this cheapjack "attraction". Not that the fault is Miss Mayo's. It's rather the ploddingly unexciting script and mindlessly static direction that are chiefly to blame for the movie's almost total lack of suspense. In fact, the only player who comes across with credit is Shelley Morrison who corners all the most colorful scenes and has all the attention-grabbing lines. The director seems to like her too. She gets just about all the close-ups - only the monster runs her anywhere close.

OTHER VIEWS: Any hopes aroused by the tensely ingratiating confrontation between Natividad Vacio and Shelley Morrison in the pre-credits Prologue, are quickly dashed by a couple of exceptionally tedious scenes of boring exposition before our travelers are eventually ensconced in the title castle.

Even the robotic zombie as woodenly enacted and none too convincingly made up, fails to inspire much interest, let alone terror. The plot invention leading to the monster's final demise is introduced with all the subtlety of an elephant stampede. Penny-pinching production values and an abrupt conclusion don't help either. - JHR writing as George Addison.

Lyon's direction is so labored, the film sinks without trace, despite competent performances from Scott Brady and Hugh Marlowe. - Monthly Film Bulletin.

A bunch of hopeful heirs to the estate of a reclusive but wealthy scientist arrives on an isolated island to hear the will. The sinister housekeeper, Lupe (well played by Shelley Morrison) turns out to be in cahoots with the horribly scarred scientist. But there is a murderous, equally horribly scarred zombie robot the scientist has made in his own image that threatens and / or starts killing some of the assembled heirs. It becomes a race against time for the survivors to uncover the person responsible for the scientist's disfigurement, to call off the rampages of the robot. The story has some nice touches but the soap opera dialog and unpleasant characters keep Castle of Evil in constant low gear. It is good to see the underrated Lisa Gaye but her character is so dull. Hugh Marlowe and Scott Brady are well cast, and Brady provides a tongue in cheek attitude when he keeps referring Lupe as 'Loopy.' Virginia Mayo is terrible, and she seems to know it... The zombie is menacing, however. As played by William Thourlby, the zombie scientist only has to cock his head slightly to be frightening. (Thourlby was the star of the lamentable Z-movie, The Creeping Terror.) Paul Dunlap's music is not boring and kept waking me up. The secluded castle has many unusual features, including an elaborate electronics and surveillance system.